A Ship, Darkly - Part I

Posted on Fri Nov 13th, 2015 @ 1:01pm by Ensign Six of Ten & Niro & Lieutenant Bajun Julisa & Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: EFS Korenna

The problem with having a ship that was, for all intents and purposes, dead in the water in space was that space is awfully damned dark. Most ships, those with diligent, intelligent engineers on them, maintained their backup generators and emergency lighting - the lighting they’d need in the event that their main power went out, leaving them in darkness.

Niro’s Korenna, however, hadn’t had a diligent engineer for far too long. As a result, when Niro opened his eyes and muttered something deprecating about the bump on his head, he had a moment of panic when he thought that, possibly, he had knocked himself blind. He quickly realized, though, that there was a tiny difference in the darkness’s quality when he had his eyes shut versus open. With eyes wide open, he could just barely see the outline of the console in front of him. “Computer, lights, 50%,” he ordered and was dismayed when he received no response whatsoever - the lights didn’t come on and the computer didn’t tell him why it wasn’t complying.

Slowly, Niro came to realize that he could see, though not well. The darkness had a touch of silver to it, a low glow that just barely limned the elements on his bridge. “Anyone here?”, he called as he stood and nearly stumbled. The gravity strength was all wrong... and Niro puzzled that out after a moment. No power would mean no gravity. He could tell the engines weren’t running so... had they landed?

Another concern came to him: his prisoners were secured by forcefields. No power: no forcefields. He hurried to leave the bridge and nearly broke his nose when the door didn’t open. “What the hell!?” He growled and forced the door open then took off jogging down the corridor. In the dark, he lost his way. On his own ship.

Eventually, he figured out where he was, just in time to bash his head against a damaged bulkhead. “Fuck!”, he shouted, angry at the universe. He nearly hurt himself further by taking his rage out on the bulkhead that was in the wrong place. He couldn’t remember, though, why the bulkhead was damaged. Had they been found by Federation ships? Rubbing his bleeding head, he proceeded more cautiously down to the ‘guest quarters’ where Julisa, Six and Darwin had been imprisoned. “Jules?”, he called.

“Niro!”, a male voice answered him. “What the hell have you done?” It was Darwin; an angry, injured Darwin, who, like Niro, couldn’t see in the dark.

“Hey, Lieutenant Darwin. Why couldn’t it be one of my crew? Speaking of, I haven’t seen ...well, heard... any of my crew,” Niro blindly felt forward and stopped when Darwin yelped.

“That’s my leg! Get off me!” Darwin grabbed at Niro and, once the Enaran was no longer standing on his thigh, used Niro to stand up. “What happened? No lights, no computer; I don’t feel the engines?”

“And yet we have gravity,” Niro answered, steadying Darwin with a hand on his elbow.

“We’re on a planet? Asteroid?”

“I don’t know,” Niro shook his head as if Darwin could see that. “Where are Julisa and Six?”

“Where did you put them?”, Darwin growled and his grip on Niro tightened. “Last I recall, we had just beamed onto your piece of shit ship.”

“Hey! The Korenna is a good ship!” Niro didn’t want to tell Darwin that he’d had the women stunned and put in holding cells. “They should be right around here. Come on,” he held Darwin’s arm and shuffled forward down the hall.

Darwin followed along, quietly calling into the darkness, “Julisa! Six!”

“Shut up!”, Niro hissed. “Unless you’re navigating by echolocation, which I rather doubt. The girls might still be out cold. I’m not sure how long I was down.”

“Out cold?” Darwin’s hand, the one not holding onto Niro for support, crept up Niro’s shoulder and grabbed the man’s neck. “You sick fuck... did you stun them? Julisa is an attorney! And Six... she’s a civilian! Neither of them has a weapon. What kind of coward are you?”

“Hey!” Niro shoved Darwin against a wall - or what should have been a wall - and the two went down, tangling together as they fell to the floor. Darwin felt his fist connect sharply with something soft; Niro gagged as Darwin’s fist found his unprotected belly. He landed face-first into something soft, for which he was grateful.

Darwin grunted as he landed on his back, his head connecting with something softer than deck plating but firmer than whatever Niro had landed in. “Get off me!” He pushed Niro off him and realized that he’d landed on someone’s leg. “Oh hell.... Why are there no lights!!”, he shouted in frustration.

“Ugh.... I don’t know,” Niro replied, muffled slightly as he answered before pushing himself up. “What is...,” he started asking the question as his hands explored the prone body they’d stumbled upon, “...oh. Ah... I think I landed on a stomach,” he finished. “Jules?” His hands moved up her body and then he corrected himself, “Ah, no, Six.”

“What? You can see her?” Darwin shifted so he could put hands on the leg that had sort of broken his fall. Carefully, he eased up her body.

“No, stupid, she has implants. So unless Julisa suddenly sprouted Borg-parts, this is Six,” Niro snapped. In other circumstances, he’d rather enjoy what he was doing right now.

“You did! You had them stunned!” Darwin felt for a pulse, found it and relaxed slightly. Six would wake up shortly, or should, he hoped. “Well... she feels whole and in one piece--”

“Oh, yes, she does,” Niro muttered, earning him a backhand from Darwin. “Ow!”

“Get your hands off of her, perv,” he ordered. In the darkness, he shifted again so that he was between Niro and Six. “Hey, Six, come on, wake up,” he urged the woman, trying to delicately find her face without unduly putting his hands all over her breasts. He managed it, mostly, and repeated his urging, “Six... come on.”

Niro, his head just starting to pound thanks to his bulkhead-finding skills, sat back. “It was just a light stun,” he said, quietly defensive.

Darwin could hear the faint whoosh of an indrawn breath and Six stirred slightly beneath his hands. “It’s dark,” she mumbled. “Whassup?”

“I don’t know,” Darwin grunted as Niro crawled over him and put hands on Six from the other side of her. “Could you not do that!?”, he grumbled.

“Six? You’re okay?” Niro haphazardly laid hands on her and grinned into the darkness when he realized what he was holding.

“I think so..I…” She started to sit up, then groaned. “Shoulder. Give me a few minutes and it should be better.” Her head began to clear and she spoke once more. “Niro…” There was a stern warning in her voice.

“Hmm?” He could read her and laughed. “Whatever. I was just making sure you’re okay.”

“Hey, Six, by any chance, can you see in the dark?”, Darwin asked as he helped her sit up and supported her.

“Umm...yes. One sec.” She pushed her hair back off her face and in the quiet, they could hear the faint whir of her implant, then a green beam played over the wall. “Night vision. What happened to the ship?”

“Niro?” Darwin prodded the man.

“I don’t know. It seems that she took some damage, as my forehead can attest, and is completely without power,” he answered.

“We need to find Julisa,” Darwin said. “Can you walk?”

“Yeah.” She rose to her feet slowly, then stood and turned in a circle, checking the corridor. They could see a shadow just ahead, curled on the floor. “There.” She began to move down the corridor, lighting the way.

Hurrying slightly ahead of Six, Darwin knelt by Julisa and checked her pulse. He visibly relaxed. “Seems she’s just stunned,” he told them. By the green light of Six’s implant, he looked her over carefully. “Yeah, doesn’t seem like she’s injured.” He glanced at the other two and winced at the smear of blood on Niro’s forehead. “She might be the only one uninjured. Lucky her.”

Six looked up at Niro and frowned. “Hold still.” Leaning in close, she examined the gash on his forehead. “That needs to be fixed,” she said. “Where are we exactly?”

“I don’t know. Without the computer, I have no instruments and no way to tell where we are. We’re on a planet, that much I know. Let’s get Jules up and get to a hatch. Maybe being outside will help us figure out what happened,” Niro said.

Darwin lightly shook Julisa, “Wake up, Julisa.”

“Hmm... Sol?” Julisa slowly came awake. “What? Why’s it dark? Solis?”

“No, Solis isn’t here,” Darwin told her. “We’re on the Korenna.”

“Ugh. That bastard Niro. What did he do, toss us in a dark cell?”

“Hey!”, Niro protested being called a bastard. “I’m more civilized than that, Jules!” He filled her in on their current circumstances as Darwin helped her stand.

“Give me a few minutes and I can find a way out. How many decks, Niro?” Six asked. “Wait... never mind. I know this class. This deck is one down from the bridge. There should be a hatch….at the end of this corridor?” She turned back to him for verification.

“Correct,” Niro nodded. “Lead the way, Miss Night Vision?”

Six took Julisa’s hand and began to move forward slowly. They passed several more staterooms and then the corridor turned, finally ending at the aft hatch. “Can you two he-men open it manually?”

Darwin looked at her and said, “We can, sure, but....” He shook his head, sure that Six, as a Borg, was just as strong, if not stronger, than Niro.

“She’s probably stronger than you, too, so watch those thoughts,” Niro chided him and applied his strength to the override lever. “Come on, Fleet, get over here.”

Darwin put his back into it and the lever swung into place, cranking the hatch open. “Maybe we should have checked the atmosphere?”

“Too late now,” Julisa mused and blinked in the light - compared to the darkness in the ship, the starlight was bright. “Luckily, it’s dark out, so we aren’t getting blinded by the light.” She stepped forward behind Niro and Darwin, still holding onto Six’s hand. “So... any guesses where we are? Archadia, maybe?”

Darwin tapped his commbadge and received a negative chirp, telling him that wherever they were, it was well outside the range of the Starbase’s system. “Nope, no guesses.”

That was not what Six wanted to hear. Knowing Julisa could read her, she squeezed the woman’s hand to alert her. Not good news. I sent an emergency alert just after we beamed aboard but….. She shrugged.

Julisa’s first thought was of Solis. Then she sniffed the air and moved further away from the ship’s hatch. “Do you smell that?”, she asked the others, causing Niro and Darwin to mimic her and sniff the air.

Darwin wrinkled his nose. “Ugh, what is that? It smells like....” He could think of several things it smelled like, none of them complimentary.

Smiling, Niro chuckled, “I think it’s an acquired smell, Darwin. Like beer is an acquired taste. But it’s ...mmm, organic and....”

“It’s the munguaali tree flower,” Julisa informed them. “I recognize it from my childhood. They only grow on Bajor, in the southern hemisphere.”

“Bajor..” Six repeated. “In the Alpha Quadrant. We cannot be in the Alpha Quadrant. It would take over a week to get there. We’ve only been gone...how long?” She turned back to Niro.

“I did bump my head, but I think I’d have noticed if we’d gone through the wormhole or traveled all the way to BAJOR!” Niro had started off calmly but ended with a panicked yell. “Jules! We can’t be on Bajor! Remember what happened there?”

She huffed at him, “Yes, I remember. But as far as I know, no other planet has the conditions necessary for the munguaali to grow, let alone blossom. Pull yourself together, Niro.”

“Shh! Both of you, hush!” Darwin tried to shush them. “I hear something coming this way.”

“Good, maybe we can get an answer about where we are,” Julisa said and walked further out towards the trees.

“If, by some means we are on Bajor, at least she might get a friendly response,” Six whispered. “Unlike me.”

Darwin turned partly towards Niro and asked, “Where is my phaser?”

“Somewhere in there,” Niro gestured back at the ship. He, too, was now hearing something coming towards them. It didn’t sound like a person, which made him just as nervous as if it were a person. “Jules! Get back here,” he hissed towards Julisa.

Freezing in place, Julisa stopped, not because Niro had called for her to come back but because she’d spied something that couldn’t possibly be where it was. As she watched, it advanced towards her, slowly moving through the underbrush, eyes on her. “Ah... guys? Get back in the ship!”, she whispered as she stepped backwards.

The creature, a large feline-like animal with scales instead of fur, kept coming. As Julisa sped up her backward retreat, it, too, sped up. Finally, Julisa turned fully and ran back towards Darwin and the others, “Get inside!”

To Be Continued....

*************
Niro
Lt. M. Darwin
Ensign Six of Ten
Lt. Bajun Julisa